Former e-commerce minister Stephen Timms told the Labour conference's Parliamentary IT Committee fringe meeting on Monday that new communications networks can be used to "make Britain a better and fairer place".
Reviewing his period as e-commerce minister before joining the Treasury, Timms said broadband coverage had improved hugely, thanks to allowing competing firms to roll out services, rather than a monopoly or direct state subsidy.
"The computing press was reporting our achievements were on a par with Croatia," he said of the situation when he started. By contrast, coverage next summer should exceed 99 percent of the population, with services provided by a range of firms. "All of us are better off for the sharpness of competition," he said.
The same policy is working for third-generation (3G) mobile networks, with three suppliers already offering a service and others starting, he added.
But Timms said Labour saw competition as "a means, not an end" - unlike the Conservatives. This is the reasons for Ofcom's duty of care to the citizen, as well as UK Online Web terminals in all libraries, the Grid for Learning and the Wired-Up Communities programme.
Timms said that IT-driven technologies such as blogging and community television stations could place the media "in the hands of the many, not the few". People feel confident as consumers, but less able to influence the world. Such technologies can tackle this, he said.
He defended the role of the DTI, which the Liberal Democrats would abolish. "I think it's got a key role. It's a mystery to me why the other parties are talking about evacuating trade and industry."
Speaking of his own image, he said he has been regarded as "the government's chief geek". A New Statesman profile had claimed he received a memory card for his 3G mobile phone for his birthday: "Completely untrue, it was for my digital camera."
